1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the field of apparatus and procedures for delivery of a liquid anesthetic into a patient's epidermis skin layer to deaden the skin at that point of injection to receive a shot utilizing a conventional hypodermic needle.
2. Prior Art
A number of devices are presently available for injecting or topically applying a variety of chemicals into or onto a patient's skin for deadening that area to a subsequent medical procedure. None, however, have involved, as does the present invention, a device for guiding a small needle nearly horizontally into the skin epidermis layer, and above nerve endings. A liquid anesthetic is administered through the small needle to deaden the skin area so as to provide for a pain free injection at that location utilizing a conventional hypodermic needle.
Examples of devices and systems for their use to provide for deadening an area of a patient's body are shown, for example, in a U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,056, that shows an example of a device for topically applying a lidocaine type chemical onto an area of a dental patient's gums, which, of course, does not involve a use of a needle or the like. A needle arrangement is, however, shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,920,001, that includes a disk for positioning onto and to be urged against a patient's skin surface, and further includes a guide sleeve connected to the disk at an angle such that a needle passed through the guide sleeve will extend into the patient's skin at an angle to the skin surface. While this arrangement tends to minimize pain, the needle nevertheless passed into the skin to a depth to encounter and stimulate nerves, causing pain to the patient. Distinct therefrom the device of the invention passes a bevel end of a small needle nearly horizontally into the patient's epidermis skin layer to inject a liquid anesthetic therein without contacting a nerve or nerves, as could cause the patient pain.
Functionally and structurally unlike the present invention a number of devices are available that provide for elevating a section of a patient's skin to pass a needle therein, as shown, for example, in U. S. Pat. Nos. 5,273,528; Re 25,637; 5,190,521; 3,826,259 and 3,466,131. Further, and also functionally and structurally unlike the present invention a number of devices are available for elevating a section of a patient's skin utilizing a vacuum, and some such devices are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,299,219; 2,945,496; and 1,934,046. Additionally, a device for depressing sections of skin to elevate an area therebetween for receiving a needle is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,457,464. This arrangement, however, does not show the cup structure of the invention nor the needle arrangement thereof whereby a small hypodermic needle is passed, close to the horizontal, into a patient's epidermis so as not to contact any nerve endings.